Processes, Periods, and Issues of Development

Vocabulary flashcards covering developmental processes, periods of human development, generational cohort effects, and key foundational issues in developmental psychology.

Biological Processes

Developmental processes that produce changes in an individual's physical nature and form one of the three core processes of development alongside cognitive and socioemotional processes.

Cognitive Processes

Developmental processes involving changes in an individual's thought, intelligence, and language.

Socioemotional Processes

Developmental processes involving changes in an individual's relationships with other people, emotions, and personality.

Processes of Development Model

A visual model illustrating the interplay among biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes across developmental periods from the prenatal period to adolescence.

Generation Alpha

Individuals born from the early $2010$s to the present, who have experienced ubiquitous technology, including artificial intelligence.

Generation Z

Individuals born between $1997$ and the early $2010$s who are more immersed in a technological world (including social media), more ethnically diverse, and better educated than millennials.

Millennials

Individuals born between $1981$ and $1996$; the first generation to come of age and enter emerging adulthood ($18$ to $25$ years of age) in the twenty-first century, characterized by connection to technology and ethnic diversity.

Generation X

Individuals born between $1965$ and $1980$, described as lacking an identity and savvy loners, whose members serve as parents to Generation Z.

Baby Boomers

Individuals born between $1946$ and $1964$, labeled after the spike in births post-World War II, representing the largest generation ever to enter late adulthood in the United States.

Silent Generation

Individuals born between $1928$ and $1945$ who were children of the Great Depression and World War II, described as conformists and civic minded.

Generational Cohort Overview Table

A summary table outlining historical periods and reasons for labels across six generational cohorts, from the Silent Generation to Generation Alpha.

Epigenetic View

The perspective stating that development is an ongoing, bidirectional interplay between genes and the environment.

Continuity vs. Discontinuity Issue

The developmental debate regarding whether development is gradual and cumulative (continuous) or occurs in distinct stages (discontinuous).

Early vs. Later Experiences Issue

The developmental question examining whether a child's development is primarily determined by early childhood experiences or by experiences that occur later in life.

Intergenerational Breastfeeding Study (Vaz et al., 2021)

A study examining the $1993$ Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort, finding that longer predominant breastfeeding duration in the first generation was associated with longer exclusive breastfeeding duration in the second generation at $3$ and $6$ months, but only among older mothers.

Gen Z Stress and Mental Health Statistics (APA, 2018)

Data indicating that $90\%$ of Gen Z adults aged $18$ to $21$ have recently experienced at least one symptom of stress, such as feeling depressed ($58\%$), lack of motivation or interest ($55\%$), and anxiety ($54\%$).

Gen Z Cohort Traits (Ebrahimi et al., 2023)

Research findings characterizing Gen Z as confident technology users who prefer videos to text for education, heavily engage in video gaming, and develop life skills in a socioeconomic environment of chaos, volatility, and complexity.